I don’t want 51% of the world’s population to take offence at this, but guys should be careful about going to watch sports events with women

My experiences of the past few days have underlined this, and I really should have heeded the opinion of my son, Kieran.

When I announced that my friend Alison would be joining us at the Portugal vs. Gambia Under 20 World Cup game last Sunday, he was skeptical. “Well, I dunno Dad. It’s nice to have someone to discuss the game with,” he said, looking down and scuffing the toe of his shoe.

Well, Alison was a model guest and asked sensible questions about the game. But ….get this…. she brought along a pair of binoculars! As if this was the theatre!

But things got worse this week. I mentioned in the last blog my difficulties with Brenda, who insisted that I peruse the colour swatches for her apartment’s paint job during the U.S. vs. Uruguay game on Thursday.

It went further downhill tonight.

I watched a bit of the U.S. vs Austria game at the office (tiresome to be working on a Saturday night, but sometimes it’s worth it. Check out the story on A15 of the Sunday Gazette about the coffee beans that are tastier when they’re picked out of cat poo. I’m not making this up)

Must admit I was hoping the U.S. would pull it off, They were the best team I’ve seen in the Big O games. But they came up short tonight. The strike force of Adu and Altidore came together for their goal, but it seemed to be an off night for Adu, and Austria ran out 2-1 winners.

So then it was off to McLeans on Peel St. where the very helpful manager turned off the Als game at the bar TV so that Debbie and I could watch the Spain vs. Czech Republic game.

I was looking forward to this as I thought Spain looked absolutely unstoppable in their 4-2 win over Brazil, while the Czechs looked a very useful, well-organized side.

It was still 0-0 with 20 minutes left when we arrived, but Debbie was very unclear on the concept. She chatted through the game, extra time, (goals included) and only took interest when I insisted on explaining the penalty shootout system. (Cool penalty-takers, those Czechs. They must have been taking lessons from the Germans)

Debbie was interested in the penalties, and I could almost forgive her for putting sugar in her beer.

But all in all, it’s best if it’s just Kieran and I later today when, with infinite regret, we’ll take our places for the last game in Montreal, the quarter final that pits Chile against Nigeria.

It’s an intriguing tie which will give us more insight into the future of the game in Africa. Arturo Vidal won’t step out for Chile. The goalscoring defender is suspended. It could be a close game.

If you haven’t seen an Under-20 game yet, give this one a try. This has been one fun tournament.

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